No. 25 MSU Heads To New Orleans To Defend SEC Tourney Title
Live Statistics
Live Audio
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Upon claiming their first SEC Western Division championship since 1995-96 and securing the West's No. 1 seed in this week's SEC Basketball Tournament, the 25th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs travel to New Orleans seeking to defend their league tourney title of a year. After receiving an opening-round bye, MSU will open tournament play Friday in Game 5 by taking on the winner of Thursday's South Carolina-Mississippi contest. Tip-off time for MSU's Friday tourney tilt is slated for noon at the Louisiana Superdome.
Thursday's opening-round games, along with the tournament quarterfinals and semifinals, will be televised regionally by Jefferson-Pilot Sports, while Sunday's championship contest will be aired nationally by CBS Sports.
| Having earned the SEC West's No. 1 seed in this week's SEC Tournament, MSU heads to New Orleans seeking to defend its league tourney title of a year ago. |
As a team, the Bulldogs tip off postseason competition pacing the Southeastern Conference and ranked among the national leaders in scoring defense (59.9 ppg; 12th in the NCAA), field-goal percentage defense (39.8%; 15th) and rebounding margin (+6.8; 9th) for all games through the regular season. Offensively, MSU rates fourth in the league in both field-goal percentage (47.4%) and scoring margin (+10.5), while ranking sixth in both scoring offense (70.3 ppg) and assists (14.6 apg).
Individually, Mississippi State is led by junior center Mario Austin, who this week was named to the 2002-03 Coaches and AP All-SEC First Teams as well as being selected as one of 22 finalists for this year's John R. Wooden Award All-American Team. The reigning SEC Tournament MVP paces this year's Bulldog club in scoring (15.6 ppg; 10th in SEC), rebounding (7.9 rpg; 3rd) and field-goal percentage (55.0%; 2nd). Austin begins postseason play ranked 19th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,139 career points and tied for 20th with 543 career rebounds.
Also named to the SEC All-Tournament team a year ago at the Georgia Dome, senior playmaker Derrick Zimmerman currently averages 8.8 points, 5.4 assists (3rd in the SEC), 4.0 rebounds and 1.9 steals (T-4th) per game from his point guard position. The two-time team co-captain will break MSU's all-time school standard by playing in his 124th career collegiate contest during the Bulldogs' first SEC Tournament game this week. Bidding to become the school's all-time winningest basketball player, Zimmerman presently ranks second on State's all-time lists with 487 career assists and 199 career steals.
Igniting MSU's perimeter attack is junior guard Timmy Bowers, who ranks 13th among the conference's leading scorers (14.5 ppg), while standing fifth in the league in 3-pointers made per game (2.3 treys/game), seventh in steals (1.7 spg) and eighth in three-point field goal percentage (41.2%). Senior Michal Ignerski ranks as State's third-leading scorer (9.5 ppg) and No. 3 rebounder (5.1 rpg) on the season.